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Sunday, May 15, 2011

The Arab Presidents' Crisis: Credibility

By Tariq Alhomayed This commentary was published in Asharq al-Awsat on 14/05/2011

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh came out yesterday to tell the opposition that those who want to govern must come to power via the ballot boxes, not the street. However the question that must be asked here is "what credibility do these ballot boxes hold, whether we are talking about Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, or Syria, or other Arab states?"

The problems being faced by the presidential systems in the Arab world today is not just because the people want change and are demanding reform, but rather the problem is due to the lack of confidence and credibility between the ruler and the ruled. This is something that we have seen clearly, particularly in the countries that have been affected by the political earthquake that has reverberated through the region. In Egypt, the cases of voter fraud at the last election went far beyond the rules of the game, and this was something that was done openly, and this is not to mention the president's insistence on bequeathing power to his son. Despite everything that former president Mubarak said during the Egyptian revolution, he had no credibility in the Egyptian street, in fact Mubarak only succeeded in reaching the feelings of a broad section of his people on one occasion, and this was during the speech in which he pledged to implement the people's demands, however this was followed by the shocking "battle of the Camel" the very next day.

Whilst in Yemen, we have seen the president in power for three decades, and now he is coming out to say that anybody who wants to rule should go to the ballot boxes!

As for Syria, we saw the president, and the members of his government, speaking about the legitimate demands of the people, and then surprisingly the official media came out to describe what is happening in the country as being part of a foreign conspiracy. The Syrian security forces have killed 850 Syrians, and have arrested no less than 9,000 citizens, and then after all of this the Syrian regime came out on Thursday to say that the president had issued strict instruction to the security forces not to fire upon anybody, however despite this the security forces did fire upon demonstrators [on Friday], killing some protestors.

The same applies to Tunisia and former president Ben Ali, and his famous "I understand you" speech was not enough, because he had already completely lost his credibility. As for Libya, there was no credibility in the first place between the ruler and ruled to be lost, and it is enough here to recall Gaddafi's statement on the day that the Libyan revolution began, in which he said that he had offered the Libyan people the country's oil revenues, but that they had refused this. I do not know how to describe a statement such as this, and whether he was joking or not?

What is clear is that this crisis is a crisis of credibility, for promises have no deadlines. Some of these regimes have never fought an enemy, or developed their country, but rather all they have done is suppress their citizens. If the ballot boxes and the dignity of the people were honored, then our region would never have reached this state. What is even worse is that in our Arab world, our Arab republics are following a strange equation, which is undoubtedly Lebanese, where "there is no winner or loser." For whoever loses the elections remains in power, through the use of force, such as Hezbollah, or thanks to Iranian pressure, like the government of Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq.

The crisis being faced by the majority of Arab republics with regards to their citizens can be summarized by the famous [Arabic] saying "I am not sad that you are lying to me, what saddens me is that I don’t believe you." This is now the mantra of the people, therefore our region is facing a sad and terrifying situation, for those who lie think nothing of killing and torture, for lying destroys all values, whatever they are.

About Me

I graduated from the French University in Beirut (St Joseph) specialising in Political and Economic Sciences. I started my working life in 1973 as a reporter and journalist for the pan-Arab magazine “Al-Hawadess” in Lebanon later becoming its Washington, D.C. correspondent. I subsequently moved to London in 1979 joining “Al-Majallah” magazine as its Deputy Managing Editor. In 1984 joined “Assayad” magazine in London initially as its Managing Editor and later as Editor-in-Chief. Following this, in 1990 I joined “Al-Wasat” magazine (part of the Dar-Al-Hayat Group) in London as a Managing Editor. In 2011 I became the Editor-In-Chief of Miraat el-Khaleej (Gulf Mirror). In July 2012 I became the Chairman of The Board of Asswak Al-Arab Publishing Ltd in UK and the Editor In Chief of its first Publication "Asswak Al-Arab" Magazine (Arab Markets Magazine) (www.asswak-alarab.com).

I have already authored five books. The first “The Tears of the Horizon” is a love story. The second “The Winter of Discontent in The Gulf” (1991) focuses on the first Gulf war sparked by Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. His third book is entitled “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: From Balfour Promise to Bush Declaration: The Complications and the Road to a Lasting Peace” (March 2008). The fourth book is titled “How Iran Plans to Fight America and Dominate the Middle East” (October 2008) And the fifth and the most recent is titled "JIHAD'S NEW HEARTLANDS: Why The West Has Failed To Contain Islamic Fundamentalism" (May 2011).

Furthermore, I wrote the memoirs of national security advisor to US President Ronald Reagan, Mr Robert McFarlane, serializing them in “Al-Wasat” magazine over 14 episodes in 1992.

Over the years, I have interviewed and met several world leaders such as American President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Margaret Thacher, Late King Hassan II of Morocco, Late King Hussein of Jordan,Tunisian President Zein El-Abedine Bin Ali, Lybian Leader Moammar Al-Quadhafi,President Amine Gemayel of Lebanon,late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, Late Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat, Haitian President Jean Claude Duvalier, Late United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan,Algerian President Shazli Bin Jdid, Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Siyagha and more...